ClearBox Consulting

News Stories

Intranet Professional Development
Another opportunity to join our Mastering Intranet Management course on 15th-16th March. The course is run in conjunction with Warwick Business School and Melcrum. Previous delegates said:
 “Great course. I couldn't find anything similar in the market place… covered all the topics I was looking for
“I have really enjoyed this course and would certainly encourage others to attend.” 20 February 2011

Shaping the future of your intranet
What does an effective intranet strategy look like? How do you establish priorities and stay on track as your intranet evolves? Join us for a ClearBox masterclass at the IntraTeam International Conference, Copenhagen, March 1st.
14 January 2011.

SharePoint User Forum
Talk SharePoint business with fellow practitioners. ClearBox will be facilitating several interactive sessions during this one-day event on 8th February. There will also be case studies from BT, Aviva, Siemens and Standard Chartered. User Forum details
12 January 2011

Digital Workplace Maturity
With limited resources, how do you choose where to develop you Intranet? What can you do to take collaboration further in your workplace? A free report ‘The Digital Workplace maturity Model’, written by Clearbox for the Intranet benchmarking Forum, is now available to download. See our summary guest blog posts Part I and Part II
3rd November 2010.

Engaging employees at CAFOD. What happens when you make every employee an editor of your SharePoint intranet? Find out about our work with CAFOD in a case study presentation at Online Information 2010 (2pm, 30th November, London).
1st November 2010

Digital Workplace Maturity. Sam Marshall, Director of ClearBox will be giving a keynote presentation at the Swiss Intranet Summit in Zurich. Sam will be speaking on The Digital Workplace Maturity Model - from Publishing to People, addressing the need for intranets to expand to cover all aspects of collaboration, community and services for employees and partners. The presentation is based on a forthcoming research report written by Sam for the Intranet Benchmarking Forum.
19^th August 2010

SharePoint for Internal Communicators ClearBox’s non-technical course on getting the most out of SharePoint has sold out for a 3rd time in a row. Some of the participant’s feedback:

• “The programme kept my attention and was stimulating throughout… Excellent presenter - never a dull moment.”
• “The trainer simplified and explained information that I had previously found complicated and difficult to understand.”
• “Relevantly presented, intelligent explanation, Sam is an effective presenter.”

New dates have now been set with a choice of An Introduction to SharePoint for Internal Communicators on 16th November and Getting more from SharePoint on 17th November for more experienced practitioners.
10th August 2010

Enthusiastic response to Mastering Intranet Management ClearBox recently piloted a new course for intranet managers in collaboration with Melcrum Publishing and John Baptista of Warwick Business School. Delegate feedback included:

• “Great course. I couldn't find anything similar in the market place… covered all the topics I was looking for”
• “I have really enjoyed this course and would certainly encourage others to attend.”
• “Very useful!”

The course is for the professional development of people in intranet manager roles. For those new to the area, it offers a structured syllabus for acquiring the essential skills to manage corporate intranets. For those who already have some experience, it offers a way to consolidate knowledge and gain recognised credentials. See Melcrum’s site for Mastering Intranet Management course details and dates 1st August 2010

Turning SharePoint stress into SharePoint success. If you’re in Internal Communications and SharePoint is coming your way, then see this Melcrum Blog post about the SharePoint for Internal Communicators course run by ClearBox. The first two dates sold out; book your place for 9th September 11th June 2010

SharePoint for Internal Communicators - new dates announced. This is a one-day course aimed at mid- to senior-level communicators focusing on how SharePoint can support your  communication strategy and in turn the goals of your organisation. Run in association with Melcrum Publishing, the first 2 sessions have sold out, but there will be a further course on 9th September. SharePoint Course details.23rd May 2010

Mastering Intranet Management. A new training course aimed at the professional development of people in intranet manager roles. For those new to the area, it offers a structured syllabus for acquiring the essential skills to manage corporate intranets. For those who already have some experience, it offers a way to consolidate knowledge and gain recognised credentials. The course lasts 2 days and is in association with Melcrum. Mastering Intranet Management course details and contents. 9 April 2010

SharePoint for Internal Communicators. A one-day course aimed at mid- to senior-level communicators focusing on how SharePoint can support your  communication strategy and in turn the goals of your organisation. London, 22nd April in association with Melcrum Publishing. SharePoint Course details. 4 February 2010

See our presentations on intranets and social media. 10 Worst practices for intranets and 10 pitfalls and lessons in social media marketing are now available for download from Slideshare. The intranets one made it onto Slideshare’s “What’s hot on Twitter” front page - clearly bad news travels fast! 4 December 2009

Social media marketing. We’ll be running a second free seminar in the Online Information Exhibition in London on December 3rd. This will look at pitfalls of marketing through social media, including case studies from Unilever, Comcast, Wal-Mart, Greenpeace and General Mills. 28 October 2009

10 worst practices for intranets. Free seminar at Online Information 2009, 1st December in London. 
A look at common pitfalls in intranet design and operation, for both traditional and social-media driven approaches. Getting it right is rarely just about installing the right tool, and this talk will address issues such as moderating employee discussion boards, the role of corporate communications, runaway SharePoint sites and Generation Y. Further details... 20 October 2009

Levels of engagement in social media. Sam Marshall will be presenting “Are you invited to the party?” at the Unicom Getting it right with Social Media conference on 3rd-4th June 2009 in London. The presentation looks at whether you should create your own communities or join what’s already there, asks if Generation Y are really any different, and looks at the risks of getting it wrong. 18 May 2009

ClearBox at Knowledge & Content UK
Sam Marshall will be facilitating a problem-solving clinic on Enterprise 2.0, intranets and knowledge on 9th June. KCUK Website 24 March 2009

Intranets: 10 Worst Practices for Employee Engagement presentation is now available for download. Presented at Online Information 2008 2nd December. 3 December 2008

See us at Online Information 2008. ClearBox will be giving a free seminar on 10 Worst Practices for Employee Engagement. Based on the maxim that it is good to learn from your mistakes, but it is much cheaper to learn from someone else’s, this presentation takes a look at common pitfalls in intranet design and operation. We distill patterns of common problems from our experience of working with a wide range of intranets in organisations from both the profit and non-profit sectors. Both the sophistication of the Web and the abilities of the average user are growing steadily,. For those working on intranets within organisations, this brings growing expectations that an Enterprise 2.0 experience will be offered. However, responding to the challenge is not simply a matter of installing technologies such as social networking or tagging. Nor can we afford to take attention off the more traditional elements of an intranet.

Tuesday 2nd December, 12:15-12.45 - Exhibition Theatre D, Information management Solutions Seminars, Online Information, Olympia Grand Hall, London. 24 October 2008

ClearBox is now tweeting. We’re experimenting with microblogging - follow Sam Marshall at:
twitter.com/sammarshall
22 August 2008

Measuring the benefits of Virtual working. Virtual working tools such as WebEx, Livemeeting, SharePoint and video conferencing are appealing because they reduce travel. This in turn means a smaller carbon footprint, reduced employee stress and cost savings on the travel itself. But how much is it really worth? And how do you decide where to invest your efforts? ClearBox is working on a tool to answer these questions. If you’re interested in taking part, then please get in touch. 4 June 2008

10 ways to create an intranet graveyard (1Mb pdf) Engaging employees through Intranets. Presented at Pharma Corporate Communications, Rome, April 2008.

Extending the reach of the intranet at Boots and BA looks at intranets beyond the office. It gives advice on effectively deploying access points such as kiosks, and explores some of the change management issues around introducing technology to workers who do not routinely use computers. The full article, written by Sam Marshall, appears in the November\December edition of KM Review. 7 December 07

ClearBox is in KMLegal magazine’s Last Word column. A reprint of the “What do you do when the baby boomers retire?” article first featured in Inside Knowledge. ClearBox also features in an article on techniques for preventing knowledge loss (subscribers only) 7 November 07

What to do when your experts retire. ClearBox will be presenting on practical ways to mitigate potential knowledge loss at the Unicom Talent Management conference, London, December 4th. [NB the presentation will be on Day 1, not Day 2, as currently listed]
22 October 07

Managing Intranet 2.0 How should Web 2.0 approaches co-exist with traditional intranets? Sam Marshall will be presenting at Online Information 2007 on December 5th. The whole conference takes a Web 2.0 theme. See the full programme.
7 October 07

Constructing the business case for your intranet. In association with Ark Group, ClearBox will be running a masterclass on how to make the case for intranet resources and ROI. Despite the appearance of spreadsheets, this will be a lively and highly-interactive one-day event in London on December 3rd.
1 October 07

What do you do when the baby boomers retire?
Inside Knowledge Magazine Thought Leader by ClearBox director Sam Marshall 
31 August 2007

The Knowledge
Profile of Sam Marshall in Inside Knowledge Magazine [subscribers only]
1 July 2007